NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—The California Coastal Commission Oct. 14 approved a permit for plans to contain contaminated sediment in Lower Newport Bay.
The commission voted 8–1 for a confined aquatic disposal facility, which is akin to digging a hole for the unwanted sediment and capping it off with clean sand.
The project includes removing some contaminated sediment and keeping it in the facility, which could hold about 112,500 cubic yards of the dredged material. The plan is to dredge about 282,400 cubic yards of sediment.
Commission staffers said it was the “least damaging feasible alternative for disposal of contaminated sediments.”
The sediment contaminated by DDT, mercury, and other chemicals would be covered by clean sand to keep it from leaching out….